Slavery In Spartacus

Roman slavery must be approached as a social institution in which the economic aspect, though important, was subsidiary, in order to appreciate the vast degree of significance which Romans themselves attributed to the presence of slavery among them, as well as its distinct cultural impact (Bradley 1998, p.18). The large presence of slaves and renewable population of skilled freedmen allowed the Roman Empire to achieve the economic and infrastructural achievements for which they are remembered, the degree of their contributions rendering Roman Italy, a ‘slave society.’ It has been estimated that, during the reign of Augustus, the servile population of Italy could have been as high as thirty-five percent (1998, pp.12-13). This high reliance on and large population of slaves was reflected throughout the empire, rendering society one in which the status of individuals - free, freedman or slave, was exceedingly salient and consequential. The strict societal hierarchy of the Roman Empire was built upon and directly contributed to the deep social divides between classes which defined social experience in the Roman Empire. Manumission, increased presence of freedmen and substantial base of slave population factored strongly into the increased significance levied upon social status, division between social groups and definition of position in society.

Slavery has been a major component of human civilization all throughout history. People turn to slavery for many reasons, such as fear of different ethnicities and fear that these new foreign people will take over land that is not theirs. The conditions under which slaves work and live varies greatly by the time and location of which the slaves lived. Slaves play a major role in their society and contribute greatly to their communities, often forming one of the largest masses of the population. Though the accuracy of the information from primary sources may be tainted with exaggeration and bias, it is easy to deduce from primary works the treatment of slaves and the working and living conditions surrounding them. According to many sources,

Slavery can be dated back to very early civilizations and were crucial in everyday activities, also to the economy. Some of these ancient civilizations include the India, Mesopotamian and Chinese and these had slaves work in their homes or their shops. Another early civilization who used slaves were the Egyptian who used the slaves to build their monuments, castles, palaces and statues. Hebrews also used slaves but were a little more moral on how they were identified. The Aztec, Inca and Mayan used slaves in many forms and most of these slaves were optained through war prisoners and were used in agriculture and warfare.

Slavery began in some of the earliest civilizations and continued to be around for over a thousand of years after that time. During this time, people of various races were forced to work for those above them and were treated almost as less than human. Two areas where slavery is best displayed is in Ancient Rome and in America prior to the Civil War. When comparing and contrasting slavery in these two places, one can see similarities and differences in how the slaves were acquired, treated, freed, and the type of labor they had to undertake. Even though these two societies were over a thousand years apart from each other, Ancient Rome and America can be compared to see the changes that occurred in slavery during this time and the ideas that

The Slave Wars were a series of three slave revolts that took place within the Roman Republic between 135 BC to 71 BC. Spartacus led the third of these slave revolts that occurred from 73 BC to 71 BC. This third slave revolt was sparked by an incident that occurred when a group of slave gladiators escaped from their school (Spartacus pg. 130). Although some may say that Roman slaves may have had it moderately easy, In fact politically and socially slaves were treated poorly.

The experiences of enslaved women differed from the experience of enslaved men in ancient Rome; slavery within ancient Rome can be traced back to the first century BCE and was based primarily on the chattel slave system. Slavery within the ancient roman society was highly normalised as it was considered a part of roman culture. Slavery within ancient Rome was so heavily normalised that it is considered to be described as a “slave society” Joshel (2010, p. 6) states that “For slaves living in the Roman world, there was no outside – no place without slavery and no movement that declared slavery wrong. Slavery was a normal part of life, and this was true not only for the Romans but for every neighbouring ancient culture”. Not only was

Slavery has been a problem to mankind much further back than the 1600s. Man has been enslaving other men for thousands of years. This has brought controversy to many and has led to lots of unhappy people. Some would try to negotiate but when that didn’t work, they took matters into their own hands. Rebellions and riots broke out, and all hell broke loose. Spartacus was one of those people.

Slave by definition is a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them. That about sums up what slavery really is in our mind and is pretty much the definition that we all picture when we think about slaves and slavery. But this is not what slavery truly was within the antebellum time period. Most of the slaves had a whole different outlook on the way they viewed, and acted and while living in their unfortunate circumstances. This is one of the few things that will be discussed further on within this paper. The main concept of this paper will be to discuss slavery in three sections; these sections will be discussing the types of people who were enslaved, and the nature of their bondage in the first section. The

When you look at the word slavery most have this fixed characterization of the word and refer back to when Europeans enslaved Africans. If we look in ancient Greece times we see slavery was around for years. Not only do we see that slavery has been around for year we also see that there were many different uses of slavery and the meaning of slavery. For instances, the Greeks used slavery as reasoning for their actions. Also, people such as the Athenians used slavery as a word to describe people as someone who needed to be ruled. Greeks looked down upon other Greeks being used as slaves, when they were not enslaving them. During these ancient times, many tyrants had many slaves but these tyrants were very relatable to their subjects.

Spartacus and the Slave Wars, although published in 2001, compiles documents written from around 79 BCE. The author, Canadian Historian Brent Shaw, compiled translated posters, letters, records, graffiti's, tax declarations, etc. from Greek and Latin sources. Considering the book, Spartacus and the Slave Wars, is a compilation of works it can be considered as a volume focusing on Ancient's slave life, their resistance, and accounts of there "rebellions." In chapters titled Gladiators, Fugitive Slaves, and Maroon Communities, we see more of a focus on this; providing us specific accounts, from Roman citizens, of the nature of a gladiator, different kinds of slaves and their forms of rebellion, and the communities that they later organized known as Maroon Communities.

Slavery in ancient Rome during the Imperial was crucial during the Roman’s expansion. Unlike modern slavery, the Romans did not base slavery on particular races instead conquered lands became opportunities to find slaves to be used in Roman society. There were also other forms for Rome to acquire slaves via trade, piracy, and breeding. The Roman slavery institution was vital for the expansion of Roman borders and the lavish lifestyle the elite of Rome had sustained. Within Roman society there were also freedmen and women called manumitted slaves, which have been released by their master. The Roman Empire embedded slavery into its culture. Across the empire slaves played a critical role in establishing Rome integrated its slave society into

There were a number of Roman laws regarding slavery, and these too, changed over time. In the Republican period, slaves had no rights and were always subject to the whims of their owners. They did have some legal standing, however. They were allowed to act as witnesses in trials, and could gain freedom either through their owner's gratitude after loyal service or by buying it through the meager earnings they might collect over a lifetime of service. For example, owners in the Republic had the right to kill or mutilate slaves at a whim, but later imperial laws took this right away, though in practice this law could be largely ignored. This represents how valued slaves were to the Roman people.

Adding onto the point where slaves were put on the market like things, slaves were also discriminated due to their previous nationality. Both of these actions illustrate inhuman behaviour by the Ancient Romans. In addition to buying and selling slaves, there is one more option which tops off these poor choices. In Ancient Rome, one was also able to rent a slave. This is renting a human being. Renting tools or horses was ordinary but renting another person just exemplifies how Romans treated slaves as things, rather than people.

The owners could do with the slaves what they wished, be it sexual favors or they could beat them at will. Beating a slave though was not usually the best thing that an owner of slaves could do because they didn't want to damage their property. To get a slave to work hard wasn't that difficult most of the time, all the owner had to do was refrain from beating and instead be nice to them. In Rome some slaves were offered freedom if they met certain criteria of the owner. After earning their freedom they were given citizenship in the city. This gave the slaves a reason to work hard, something to look forward to.

The nation of Rome: The nation of Rome is very corrupt in so many senses ranging from slavery or their nearly powerless senate. In the beginning when the long shot camera angle shows the slaves on the mountain with the Romans commanding this shows the Roman power, if you look deeper though and see the Romans commanding these people against their will you see a lack of care for human rights and use people to expand their power. In the scene where the women watch the slaves fighting it speaks degrees to the Roman culture of that time, that two people fighting to the death is entertainment in Rome once again shows Rome had no regard for human rights. In one scene when you see the Roman legion in a long shot this is to speak to the Roman power and vast armies. Unfortunately throughout the move Rome’s government and culture never went through a big change like in the other themes.